Officials to review standard of living report

June 22, 2010|By Melanie Hicken, melanie.hicken@latimes.com

Terry Engle, 58, of Glendale, had his entire life on a bicycle… (Raul Roa, Glendale…)

CITY HALL — A city-funded report that found Glendale had the highest reported rate of adult marijuana and cocaine use in Los Angeles County will finally have its day, nine months after officials sidelined its hearing to put the data in greater context.

In that time, local nonprofit social service agencies have been unable to tap the wide-ranging Quality of Life Indicators report in applying for funding grants because the City Council must first note and file the information before it's official.

The report was originally scheduled to come to the City Council in November, roughly two months after it was completed. The report is now slated to be reviewed July 13.

City Councilman John Drayman said he was concerned by the "apologetic tone" associated with reporting on the indicators and their findings.

"This report needs to be brought forward," he said. "It's how we improve the city. It's how we improve the services for the residents of Glendale."

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The Quality of Life Indicators report culled data from a number of sources, including Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, the U.S. Census Bureau and the city's own statistics, and then compared those figures with other cities.

An administrative analyst for the Neighborhood Services Division dedicated half her time for a year to overseeing the project, and the city hired a part-time data collector to assist. Other resources were also dedicated to the effort, according to a city report.

Nonprofits typically cite the data when applying for competitive grants that fund programs to address community issues like drug use and poverty.

"I am really waiting anxiously for the Quality of Life indicators to be released to the City Council and approved by the City Council so that we can begin to cite them," said Camille Levee, executive director of Glendale Healthy Kids and chairwoman of the Glendale Healthier Communities Coalition, an organization of local health professionals.

But with so much time now passed since the report was finished, some of the statistics will already be outdated by the time the City Council hears it.

"The figures were all current at the time we did it, which would have been last September," Neighborhood Services Administrator Sam Engel said.